In histology, thin sections obtained from tissue samples are placed on sample carriers referred to as slides. In order to prepare the slides for microscopy, the thin sections placed on the slides are typically treated, in particular dehydrated and/or stained. To protect the thin sections, a cover slip is placed on top. Prior to placement of the cover slip, a mounting medium is applied via which the cover slip adheres to the slide. After checking the coverslipping quality, the slides carrying the coverslipped thin sections are transferred to a microscope for further examination of the thin sections.
The coverslipping of the thin sections; i.e., the application of the mounting medium and the cover slip, is performed, in particular, using so-called automated coverslippers. Known coverslippers have a coverslipper module for applying a mounting medium received in a mounting medium reservoir and for subsequently applying cover slips received in a coverslip container. The treatment of the thin sections prior to coverslipping, and the further handling of the slides after the coverslipping, such as quality checking, are performed by separate devices. These separate upstream and downstream devices may be connected to the coverslipper via respective transfer interfaces, allowing the slides to be transferred automatically. The problem here is that a plurality of transfer interfaces are needed which, on the one hand, requires much space and, on the other hand, results in high susceptibility to faults. Alternatively, the slides may also be manually transferred to or removed from the coverslippers. However, the handling requires a lot of manpower and, in addition, is susceptible to faults.
Moreover, the known coverslippers are problematic because when slides are to be coverslipped with different mounting media or cover slips, the mounting medium reservoir and/or the coverslip container has/have to be emptied and filled with the new mounting medium or the new cover slips, respectively. In this case, the mounting medium reservoir and the mounting medium pump must be intensively cleaned, which requires very much effort. As a result, coverslipping operations in which mounting media and cover slips other than the standard ones are used are often performed manually to avoid this effort. This, on the one hand, is very laborious and, on the other hand, is susceptible to faults.